Read Online Cast the First Stone by Chester Himes - Free Book Online

couldn’t make out what he was trying to say.
    “You wait here,” Warren said, shoving me toward the opposite bench. I frowned. I was getting good and tired of all that shoving. Warren went next door after the deputy. As soon as he’d left, the fat fellow said, “What say, Jimmy?”
    “Hello,” I said.
    “Don’t you remember me? I’m Benny Glass.”
    “Oh, yeah. Hello. What say, bud?”
    “I was in the county jail in Springfield with you last year. I guess it was year before last now.”
    “Oh yeah, sure.” But I couldn’t remember him.
    “Didn’t you get a five-year bench parole for forgery?”
    “Yeah.”
    “What’d ya do, break it?”
    “No, I’m doing twenty years for robbery.”
    His mouth came open. “Je-hesus Christ!”
    Captain Warren came in with the deputy and we stopped talking. The deputy stood very erect and walked with short, fast steps. He didn’t look at any of us. He walked jerkily and his head bobbed up and down. He kept straight on back to the courtroom.
    Kish came in from outside and followed them. There was a grimy old window between the courtroom and the waiting room. I saw the deputy take the middle of the three chairs behind the scarred, flat-topped desk.
    Kish stuck his head out of the door and called, “Wilkerson, 102697.” The youth got up and went inside. He wasn’t giggling now. We kept silent, watching the door, trying to hear what was being said. All we could hear was a jumble of voices. Then the voices stopped. Kish stuck his head out the door.
    “Glass, 101253.”
    When he passed me Glass said, “Jumpy’s in his sins today.” He didn’t come out either. Then Kish called me. I went inside and stood before the desk, leaning forward with the palms of my hands on the desk and my cap stuck in my coat pocket. Kish stood in front of the far door above which was the legend: correction cells.
    Warren stood to my right, at the side of the desk. “Take your cap out of your pocket and fold your hands,” he said. The deputy was reading the yellow report card before him on the desk. I folded my arms, holding my cap in my left hand. Old man Warren took it out of my hand and said, “See, he’s got slick already. He’s got a tailor-made cap.” The deputy didn’t look up. I reached for my cap. Warren said, “Oh, no, I’ll keep this.” I felt myself getting tight again.
    “‘Refusing to work,’” the deputy read from the card. He looked up at me. “You’re starting pretty soon, pretty soon, pretty soon, Monroe.”
    “I gave him every chance,” Warren said. “But he won’t work. I gave him a porter’s job inside, but he quit that…”
    “I got fired,” I interrupted. “Old B&O wanted me…”
    “Shut up! Shut up!” Warren shouted, drawing back as if to slap me. “Don’t you interrupt me like that.”
    I burnt up. I could feel the fire in my eyes and face. My whole body got stiff and wooden.
    “I did get fired, goddammit!”
    Kish came up behind me and held my arms. Warren slapped me twice in the mouth.
    “That’ll do, that’ll do,” the deputy said.
    Kish held me for a moment longer to see if I would put up any resistance. I didn’t move. I was saying to myself—so he hit me, he hit me. I’m not going to take that. I’m damned if I take that. Then Kish turned me loose. I still didn’t move.
    After a moment I said dully, “All right, all right. You hit me!” I tasted a little blood on my lips.
    The deputy looked at the card again. “What’s the matter you can’t work, Monroe? What’s the matter? What’s the matter?” He was very impatient and his eyes were snapping-sharp. I couldn’t meet his gaze.
    “I’m not able to,” I said, looking down at the desk.
    “What’s the matter? What’s the matter?”
    “I’m injured!” I shouted. Then I told him about my back.
    “There’s nothing about it on his hospital card,” Warren said.
    “I didn’t tell the doctor.”
    “We’ll see about it, well see about it,” the deputy